kingofsnake's recent activity

  1. Comment on Good News - A thread and a challenge in ~news

    kingofsnake
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    I was going to post about this! Amazing news, and the type to make Dani nervous about radical moves going forward. I'm also hoping that Nicholides is recalled and that the government using the...

    I was going to post about this! Amazing news, and the type to make Dani nervous about radical moves going forward.

    I'm also hoping that Nicholides is recalled and that the government using the notwithstanding clause in the Charter triggers a general strike as well. If everything coalesces at once, maybe Albertans will begin paying attention.

    5 votes
  2. Comment on Unfuck Google Drive (It's Gemini garbage, of course) in ~comp

    kingofsnake
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    Dropbox is still decent albeit a bit more pricey than OneDrive and Google Drive. I use Proton drive as it comes with the email/VPN subscription and I like it.

    Dropbox is still decent albeit a bit more pricey than OneDrive and Google Drive. I use Proton drive as it comes with the email/VPN subscription and I like it.

    1 vote
  3. Comment on Millennials: How do you feel about nostalgia pandering? in ~talk

    kingofsnake
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    Yeah, I really liked it too. The fish out of water story can be so poignant - just look at Back to the Future.

    Yeah, I really liked it too.

    The fish out of water story can be so poignant - just look at Back to the Future.

    1 vote
  4. Comment on Millennials: How do you feel about nostalgia pandering? in ~talk

    kingofsnake
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    Cool observation. Outside of Stranger Things and Seinfeld belonging to different genres, what Seinfeld does in those early episodes is make hallmarks of the decade functional rather than special....

    Cool observation. Outside of Stranger Things and Seinfeld belonging to different genres, what Seinfeld does in those early episodes is make hallmarks of the decade functional rather than special. There's no close-ups of 80's memorabilia and objects or Pintrest-curated set decoration in Seinfeld. There was an early episode where Elaine, Jerry and George go to 'the movies' and you wouldn't even know where they were based on the scene backdrop -- 'the movies' was less of a cultural artifact, and more of a place where you shot a scene about Seinfeld's social issue of the week.

    Again, they both come from different genres, production periods, film making conventions and most of all, time periods, but today, there's this hyper-fixation on setting and vibes that there wasn't then.

    Adults weren't as steeped in fantasy and make-believe and didn't demand the flash and weird nostalgic details that we think are so important today.

    1 vote
  5. Comment on Millennials: How do you feel about nostalgia pandering? in ~talk

    kingofsnake
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    Absolutely with you about going back to the originals, though I'm curious: is there a nostalgia example you can think of where the creators hit all the right notes and you were over the moon about...

    Absolutely with you about going back to the originals, though I'm curious: is there a nostalgia example you can think of where the creators hit all the right notes and you were over the moon about it?

    You mentioned using all of the "right" references from the 80s in a work to sell tickets and it made me think of how unrestrictedly I love Synthwave as a genre. Especially through The Midnight's work, the genre takes every last trope from 80s pop and makes art that's ar once super poppy and sugary but has this deep longing for time passed. Worth a listen if that's a point in time you'd like to revisit.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qIz-9CHVQUc&list=RDqIz-9CHVQUc&start_radio=1&pp=ygUSdGhlIG1pZG5pZ2h0IGphc29uoAcB

    1 vote
  6. Comment on Millennials: How do you feel about nostalgia pandering? in ~talk

    kingofsnake
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    As the Hobbit goes, I'm such a fan of the Rankin and Bass animated film. The Glenn Yarborough original soundtrack is pure magic.

    As the Hobbit goes, I'm such a fan of the Rankin and Bass animated film. The Glenn Yarborough original soundtrack is pure magic.

    4 votes
  7. Comment on Millennials: How do you feel about nostalgia pandering? in ~talk

    kingofsnake
    (edited )
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    Personally, I hate it and I'll totally call it pandering. While I too would love to see new takes on old properties, I think that in most cases, it's not the artists making the choice to bring...

    Personally, I hate it and I'll totally call it pandering. While I too would love to see new takes on old properties, I think that in most cases, it's not the artists making the choice to bring something back. Nostalgia is bankable business and a great way to soak up money from an audience longing for a time when everything felt fresh and new, but are either too busy, bored or tired from adult life to seek out *actual new experiences.

    Magic and imagination is not just the purview of the young, but to me, nostalgia bait isn't exactly delivering on either. It's a sugary, updated repacking of what the culture remembers about a thing. Gone are the rough edges and expansions on ideas that are too previous to remove from the IP. What also bugs me is that young people are inundated with artifacts from their parents' childhoods - something that I found so nauseating growing up. My major point of contention was classic rock. It wouldn't die -- it was everywhere all the time, and while I enjoyed it, more contemporary, age appropriate music for my generation was way harder to find.

    This was a stream of consciousness rant, but (hopefully) evidence that I love a good conversation about the subversive aspects of our culture, consumerism and what it means to age. That all said, I'm a sucker for...

    • Sega nostalgia: Blue sky arcade titles, their classic RPGs and everything surrounding the Dreamcast launch and demise. I was the ultimate superfan.

    • My old neighborhood: I'll always take a chance to slow drive through, peer in my school windows (at night - is that less creepy?)

    • Actively seeking out school pals for reunions. Getting the old crew together is amazing, I just wish people weren't so ambivalent about it.

    • Tech and internet yesterdays: I picked up a B4 ENG TV lens to use with my ZCam cinema camera because I love the versatility of a tool that's so mechanically amazing. The image is fair, but even today there's nothing quite like shooting from the shoulder with a servo lens. You feel like a goddamned hero.

    4 votes
  8. Comment on Millennials: How do you feel about nostalgia pandering? in ~talk

    kingofsnake
    (edited )
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    "Remember this thing? Wasn't it great?" I love the South Park skit about 'member berries' where the whole town eats them and gets hooked on nostalgia for an episode. "Remember Star Wars and...

    "Remember this thing? Wasn't it great?"

    I love the South Park skit about 'member berries' where the whole town eats them and gets hooked on nostalgia for an episode. "Remember Star Wars and remember Chewbacca??" turn into "remember when there were no Mexicans?" and cue the downward spiral into this dream about yesterday being the golden age.

    Frankly, I'll join you in calling it pandering. It's base-level business choices aimed at base-level feelings. "Remember the good old days when you were a kid?" Memories live on in this perfect, untouchable bubble for all of us, and the urge to bank off of better times is at best a chance to revise and update old works, and at worst the result of boardrooms, MBAs and a society chasing dollars over innovation.

    8 votes
  9. Comment on Current studies may overestimate microplastics transferring from containers to food in ~food

    kingofsnake
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    Well crap. I really thought that the spelling was less about writing with chock and more to do with whatever 'chock' is haha. Lesson learned

    Well crap. I really thought that the spelling was less about writing with chock and more to do with whatever 'chock' is haha. Lesson learned

    2 votes
  10. Comment on Current studies may overestimate microplastics transferring from containers to food in ~food

  11. Comment on Current studies may overestimate microplastics transferring from containers to food in ~food

    kingofsnake
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    I'll chock this up as a good news story since microplatics in food products, water and all else are an ongoing point of concern in my household.

    I'll chock this up as a good news story since microplatics in food products, water and all else are an ongoing point of concern in my household.

    5 votes
  12. Comment on Struggling in my relationship in ~life

    kingofsnake
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    This is an important point. OP, the mention that your partner prefers to communicate over text, to me, sounds like the pressure of a face to face discussion is too much. I've been to therapy with...

    If they're not good at introspection in general, it might be difficult to talk through the next steps of "this is not sustainable, something has to change" meaning they have to change instead of passively have weather happen to them.

    This is an important point. OP, the mention that your partner prefers to communicate over text, to me, sounds like the pressure of a face to face discussion is too much.

    I've been to therapy with somebody whose anxiety around having a conversation about expectations, shared responsibility (to things, each other) began with identifying their anxiety as something that I needed to appreciate and navigate.

    As frustrating as that was for me to acknowledge that something I perceived as deficiency ("Why is this a thing? Why can't you just try harder to pick up after yourself?"), acknowledging that this barrier existed for them and committing to working through an issue on terms that respected their anxiety was very important.

    I'm not sure whether the hoarding, the texting or the financial issues are the result of something like this, but it sounds to me like avoidance of a more foundational issue. If they're able to explore that outloud with you in a mediated session, it could help bring you closer together.

    Good luck. Marriage isn't always easy but when I think of the alternative, I certainly prefer it.

    8 votes
  13. Comment on Halo: Campaign Evolved | The Silent Cartographer – Thirteen minute gameplay demo in ~games

    kingofsnake
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    While it's a bit silly to say since everybody's doing remakes, I find it more than a little sad that over 20+ years at it, Halo (and specifically, the first) is Microsoft's only real ace in the...

    While it's a bit silly to say since everybody's doing remakes, I find it more than a little sad that over 20+ years at it, Halo (and specifically, the first) is Microsoft's only real ace in the hole nostalgia bait. It's a testament to how they've run Xbox, which ideas were chosen to live and die and just how corporate the whole thing felt.

    Given discussions about how Xbox Everywhere is basically a retreat from the space, it's fitting that MS goes out with a whimper using one of the only original properties they have.

    13 votes
  14. Comment on The goon squad. Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation. in ~life

  15. Comment on The goon squad. Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation. in ~life

    kingofsnake
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    I was thinking "wow, these people all share photos of their spaces with each other? I totally want to see one." Then I didn't because these most definitely aren't the custom man caves or Pinterest...

    I was thinking "wow, these people all share photos of their spaces with each other? I totally want to see one."

    Then I didn't because these most definitely aren't the custom man caves or Pinterest hobby rooms I was imagining lol.

    6 votes
  16. Comment on The goon squad. Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation. in ~life

    kingofsnake
    Link Parent
    Yeah, the Atlantic and I'm pretty sure the New Yorker do too. Weird article for sure, but knowing about the Bizarre things habits and subcultures that define our time will be film plots of...

    Yeah, the Atlantic and I'm pretty sure the New Yorker do too. Weird article for sure, but knowing about the Bizarre things habits and subcultures that define our time will be film plots of tomorrow.

    I'm here for it, even if this particular edition is... Icky???

    10 votes
  17. Comment on Microsoft pushes Xbox studios to hit higher profit margins in ~games

    kingofsnake
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    Can't divorce the mixed bag cold from its awful patents. There were some shining moments for XBox, but frankly, I never felt like they were doing anything but playing it safe and when that failed,...

    Can't divorce the mixed bag cold from its awful patents. There were some shining moments for XBox, but frankly, I never felt like they were doing anything but playing it safe and when that failed, they played dirty. Good riddance.

    4 votes
  18. Comment on What's your favorite hobby? in ~hobbies

    kingofsnake
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    So many groups are do or die when it comes to loyalty and putting in the work. I'm with your wife - I don't like that aspect of it. I'd train again, but if I get a whiff of belts or uniforms, I'm out.

    So many groups are do or die when it comes to loyalty and putting in the work. I'm with your wife - I don't like that aspect of it.

    I'd train again, but if I get a whiff of belts or uniforms, I'm out.

  19. Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Chrono Trigger in ~games

    kingofsnake
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    I feel like any game you play during a historic life event or over a concentrated period of time can have that effect. Same goes for books or movies - there's something about delirium and having...

    I feel like any game you play during a historic life event or over a concentrated period of time can have that effect. Same goes for books or movies - there's something about delirium and having your full attention that makes an experience so much more rich.

    1 vote
  20. Comment on Salmon clear last Klamath dams, reaching Williamson and Sprague rivers in ~enviro

    kingofsnake
    Link Parent
    Unrelated, but I only just learned that your username isn't "Sky Brain"

    Unrelated, but I only just learned that your username isn't "Sky Brain"

    2 votes